Having trouble finding a game

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Ever since I picked up my very first Warhammer 40,000 RPG Rulebook; Rogue Trader, I have been attempting to find a group whom plays any of the three games in my area. After that failed I attempted to locate anyone on my ship. Failing at that, I have decided to try going around to see if anyone in the Norfolk, VA area was playing and would be willing to let me join. I have never played for real, but I am fairly used to the mechanics and am a 40k addict, so I know my way around the universe pretty well.

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I could never find anyone to play in my area for the longest time (Cincinnati), so I eventually just decided to start my own game, be the GM, and convince people to give it a try. Now I run a weekly Rogue Trader group of 4 or 5 guys and we're having a ball.

My secret weapon: Convince a fellow gamer or sci-fi fan to read the Eisenhorn trilogy of books. It works like a charm. Once they fall for the setting, they'll want to give the game a shot.

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I used to be stationed at Norfolk, and I had to go all the way to the Newport News side of the world to find a game. It was Warhammer 40K TT as there were no RPGs then, but I did find a pretty good store. It was on Warwick Blvd I believe, Sherwood shopping center or something. Course it might not even be there any more. That's where I started to play RPGs actually.

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I could never find anyone to play in my area for the longest time (Cincinnati), so I eventually just decided to start my own game, be the GM, and convince people to give it a try. Now I run a weekly Rogue Trader group of 4 or 5 guys and we're having a ball.

My secret weapon: Convince a fellow gamer or sci-fi fan to read the Eisenhorn trilogy of books. It works like a charm. Once they fall for the setting, they'll want to give the game a shot.

I did this years ago when stationed in Germany, when I was in the army. That was 1981 & 82, the game then was D&D, but this fits for any game system. I did the same as above, but handing out my copy of The Hobbit.

I went through my whole barracks and found 1 guy who was interested. Went through 3-4 other companies in the area, gained 2 people who would try it (in both cases found bored people in the day room). One had played D&D previously, and the other had never played it. I went to the local youth center, and found a number of kids interested. While some of the younger kids drifted away after the first session or two, 2 stayed. So when all was said and done, 2 months after starting the thing I had 5 or 6 regulars, and we were allowed to run the thing every Saturday (barring military duties) at the youth center. Once in a while, we'd do other games for a break like Risk.

After running for about 20 months (my tour was 2 years), with occasional guest GMs, I had to rotate out. But by then, there were 3 rp groups running every Saturday with a mix of GIs and dependent youths.

More recently, I tried to find an active group of players for DH, nearer to my home, than the one I have to travel to every other week, about 20 miles away. I started with one regular player, then two at my local game store, and by being there every week, rain or shine 5pm to 10pm, every Sunday night. After 3 months, my regular group had 5 last week, and 9 the week before (every other week 2 players can't make it, and 2 had to miss last week because one got VERY sick).

My answer to you is if you haven't found anyone, then you really haven't tried.

You're not going to have a group find YOU. You have to go out and recruit THEM.

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My secret weapon: Convince a fellow gamer or sci-fi fan to read the Eisenhorn trilogy of books. It works like a charm. Once they fall for the setting, they'll want to give the game a shot.

Well, I had my players read some 40k fiction as an introduction to the setting and some of them didn't like Eisenhorn (surprisingly, Sandy Mitchell's books about the I and James Swallow's Faith & Fire went down far more easily). A player described the main character as a "bland, unlikable jerk" and the whole book as a "series of predictible fight scenes badly strung together" and I had a hard time selling her the setting for a rpg campaign. So, better enquire first about the litterary tastes of your prospective players before handing them the books.

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My secret weapon: Convince a fellow gamer or sci-fi fan to read the Eisenhorn trilogy of books. It works like a charm. Once they fall for the setting, they'll want to give the game a shot.

Well, I had my players read some 40k fiction as an introduction to the setting and some of them didn't like Eisenhorn (surprisingly, Sandy Mitchell's books about the I and James Swallow's Faith & Fire went down far more easily). A player described the main character as a "bland, unlikable jerk" and the whole book as a "series of predictible fight scenes badly strung together" and I had a hard time selling her the setting for a rpg campaign. So, better enquire first about the litterary tastes of your prospective players before handing them the books.

I handed my players the background pamphlet from the TT boxed set, For the Emperor by Sandy Mitchell, Eisenhorn by Dan Abnett and Relentless.

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Try RP Tools, home of map tools. Not only does it come with a convenient forum where a lot of these smaller RPGs can quickly gather 5-6 replies, but it is also home to a pretty decent set of online RPG tools for maps, dice, etc..